User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Crols
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: February 5, 2010

Bottom Line:

This is one the best sounding pre-amps I have heard. I kicks the crap out of my old Llinn classiks pre-amp section,
and this thing was built in the late 80's. Everything is in balance, and very clean. There is also a sense of warmth that I miss in a lot of today's equipment. The build quality is rock solid, the dials feel very tight, and it's pretty heavy for it's size. I got quite a deal on this used so I'm a happy camper. The sound was slightly limited somewhat in the treble a first, so I cleaned the circuit pathways with rubbing alcohol, and the improvement is vast...open skyward.

Anyway, if you're looking for a budget pre-amp, your into a warm, natural sounding music and can find this used snatch it up.

This is a great preamp. I had a SP7 about six months ago, which I had bought from a high end store, but I had to return it after about four months since the phono stage was not working properly. I was not happy to let it go, it sounded so good, it does not sound like "HiFi" at all, it takes you a few steps closer to the "Real Musical Event". Soon after I had bought an LS3B, which was good, but after a while, I started to get bored with the LS3B sound and I kept thinking about how good SP-7 was. But as luck would have it, I found one here in Toronto, in really great shape, it looks as if it is about 5/6 years old, but this guy took care of it very well, and I think this is the latest version of SP-7 since it has a mute function as well, the older SP-7 I believe did not have this. It is really heavy built like a tank, five inputs including tape loop and moving magnet phono stage which is simply superb. If you can find one on the used market and if you can compare it to any other preamp, you will keep going back to SP-7.

This unit was manufactured between 1981-1988, and still holds it's own with todays best. There are no tone controls,which I think messes up the soundstage anyway,and makes it very painless to control. The phono stage is very represenative, and along with the build quality, and compact styling, make it an excellent buy on the used market.